1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a measurement or protective appliance having a terminal for setting up a connection to a data bus and having a control device which stipulates the measurement or protection mode of operation of the measurement or protective appliance, the mode of operation being able to be altered externally via the terminal.
A protective appliance of this kind is sold by Siemens AG under the product name SIPROTEC, for example. In the case of this protective appliance, the mode of operation of the protective appliance can be altered externally via a data bus terminal by reparameterizing the appliance. This means that a new set of parameters is transmitted to the appliance and determines the properties of the appliance afresh.
2. Brief Summary of the Invention
The invention is based on the object of improving a measurement or protective appliance of the type described such that it allows evaluation operations, particularly test operations, externally even more easily than previously. In particular, evaluation or test operations are intended to be possible without the need for reparameterization of the entire measurement or protective appliance—that is to say alteration of the parameters which stipulate the mode of operation of the appliance.
This object is achieved by the invention on the basis of a measurement or protective appliance of the type indicated at the outset by means of the characterizing features of claim 1. Advantageous refinements of the invention are specified in subclaims.
Accordingly, the invention provides for the control device to be in a form such that it can operate at least two software modules in parallel with and independently of one another. One of the software modules is an operating module which stipulates the measurement or protection mode of operation of the measurement or protective appliance. At least one additional software module may have a further, that is to say another or additional, function. In line with the invention, the control device has at least one software interface to which the additional software module can be coupled by means of software externally via the terminal.
The essence of the invention is to provide a software interface within the measurement or protective appliance which allows external coupling of an additional software module or a plurality of additional software modules. A software interface of this kind can be used to install an additional software module in the protective appliance externally via an external data bus—for example via a station bus or a process bus—e.g. as part of service, maintenance or testing work (or the like) without the need to alter the configuration or parameterization of the operating module which stipulates the measurement or protection mode of operation of the measurement or protective appliance. The operating module thus remains unaltered, even though the mode of operation of the measurement or protective appliance is extended overall. Apart from the fact that reparameterization of the operating module is complex, reparameterization of the operating module always carries the risk of errors arising and of the originally correct functionality of the protective appliance being altered by mistake or rendered totally inoperative; the invention avoids such errors by means of the software interface and the option of implementing an additional software module.
Another advantage of the invention is that the additional software module can be configured very individually; there are no restrictions on the basis of only inadequate functionality of the operating module, since the operating module remains separate from other software modules.
By way of example, additional “test software modules” can be used to allow a test engineer to resort directly to the time-based samples from a measurement transducer connected to the input of the measurement or protective appliance, even though these data are normally not provided or output at the output on account of the configuration of the operating module and hence of the measurement or protection mode of operation of the measurement or protective appliance: if, by way of example, the protective appliance converts time-based samples from the measurement transducer into pointer values then the time-based samples are no longer available at the output. This problem can be solved by subsequently loading additional software modules.
The individual software interfaces are preferably separate from one another such that a subsequently loaded software module freshly installed via the data bus cannot retrospectively influence or adversely affect the permanently installed operating module. This ensures that the permanently installed operating module continues to operate regardless of when additional software modules are “coupled” and operated.
Preferably, each software module in the control device is coupled by means of a software interface, each software interface being able to be addressed externally via the terminal.
Preferably, the control device has a software platform having a plurality of software interfaces. All the software modules in this case are coupled by means of the software interfaces of the software platform. With regard to compatibility among one another, it is considered to be advantageous if a plurality of, for example all, software interfaces of the software platform are in identical form such that each software module can be coupled to a plurality of or any software interface(s).
By way of example, the software platform is coupled to an operating system operating on the basis of the IEC 61850 standard.
To connect the measurement or protective appliance to measurement transducers, it preferably has a process bus terminal.
The invention also relates to a protective system having a measurement or protective appliance and a data bus which is connected to the measurement or protective appliance.
In this respect, the invention is based on the object of improving a protective system of this kind such that it very easily allows evaluation operations, particularly test operations, externally without necessitating reparameterization of the measurement or protective appliance.
The invention achieves this object by virtue of the data bus having an evaluation unit, particularly a tester, connected to it and the measurement or protective appliance being in a form such that it receives an evaluation or test software module supplied from the evaluation unit to the data bus for evaluation or test purposes and couples said module to a software interface and starts the evaluation or test software module.
For the advantages of the inventive protective system, reference is made to the comments above in connection with the inventive measurement or protective appliance.
The invention is also defined as a method for operating the described measurement or protective appliance; the method is defined in the patent claims. For the advantages of the inventive method, reference is made to the above comments in connection with the inventive measurement or protective appliance.